Play-dough and Cardboard Mazes

Hello friends!  I'm currently on the lookout for easy (and not too messy) ways to keep the kids entertained.  Today I'm sharing a fun preschool STEAM activity that kept both my boys entertained.  We've made outdoor rock mazes, edible candy mazes, and Lego mazes.  Today we're keeping the theme going with these super easy play-dough mazes!

Let's Make Play-Dough Mazes!

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Magical Mother's Day Unicorn Handprint Card

Happy Mother's Day, friends!  If you're looking for a super quick handprint card that your toddler or preschooler can make, then check out this magical unicorn card!

Happy Mother's Day Unicorn Handprint Card!

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Tree Painting with Toddlers and Preschoolers

Well, the title of the post pretty much says it all!  Last week we held an impromptu art playdate with some friends.   I wanted to do an activity that was different, open-ended,  and easy-to-set-up.  This tree painting activity did the trick!

Let's Paint the Trees together!

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Free Printable Fingerprint Birthday Cards

Is a birthday coming up?  Looking for a neat birthday card idea?  Well, here are two free birthday card ideas (and 2 free printables!) that you might like.  Aren't these fingerprint birthday cards adorable?  Friends and guests can decorate a card with colorful fingerprints to make these special balloon and birthday cake cards.   

Free Printable Fingerprint Birthday Cards

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Spooky Chalk Stencil Halloween Haunted Houses

Ok.  I realize that Halloween is several months away.  But I made this city skyline scene with my son and thought... wait a moment... this would be a great Halloween craft to do with kids!   Whaddya think?  The chalk gives the picture an eerie feeling... don't you think?

Oooooh!  Spooky Chalk Stencil Haunted Houses

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Cereal Box Pizza Craft

Mama Mia!  Today it's all about pizza!  Yup.  Pizza is one of our favorite foods so we recently did a really cute recycled craft and made some cardboard pizzas!

Cardboard Pizza Craft Art Project

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How to fold an Easy Origami School Bus (And a book list)

School is right around the corner.  Eeek.  Are you ready?  We're excited and nervous around here to finally be going to "big kid school."   Ever since we folded Origami Yoda and Origami Pikachu together, my son's really been into origami crafts.  To go along with the back-to-school theme, we recently folded these origami school buses together.

Easy Origami School Bus Tutorial

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Outer Space Kids Jewelry

As a kid I adored watching Ms. Frizzle.   Her crazy hair, her awesome outfits, her magic bus, her love of science... gosh. What wasn't there to love?  Well, today I'm sharing this awesome STEM inspired craft.  We're tapping into our inner science nerds and making some space inspired jewelry with the kiddos!  (Ok, who am I kidding... this would be an awesome craft for any space-loving adults too!)

How to Make Outer Space Planet and Galaxy Jewelry

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So grab your Sculpey Clay, favorite Magic School Bus books, and visit DIY Candy today to learn how to make your very own spacey clay jewelry!

More Space Themed Crafts

And, if you're looking for more space themed crafts, check out these ideas below!

• Cardboard Roll Model Space Shuttle
• Pie Plate Solar System
• Kirigami Stars
• Straw Rockets
• Cardboard Space Shuttle Climbing Toy
• Lego Space Station Stamping
• Galaxy Light Jar
• Star Painting
• Paint your own Galaxy Umbrella
• Glow in the dark Star Finding Game

Happy making, friends!

Sparkly, Colorful Peel and Stick Window Mosaics

Sparkly and colorful- this removable window cling craft was one of our favorites this summer!  We love doing mosaic crafts over here with kiddos.  There's something super neat about putting tiny pieces together to create a lovely design or picture. And this craft takes mosaics to the next level.  Kids can make their own mosaic pieces AND create beautiful stick and peel mosaics on windows!

How to Make Peel and Stick Window Mosaics! 

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Easy Origami Yoda Tutorial

So... I folded this origami pikachu with my son.  And after folding it together, it suddenly dawned on me.  If I just tweaked the ears to my original directions, I could make a Yoda instead.  (What?  Love it when those "aha!" moments hit.)  If  you're a Star Wars lover (or raising some little Star Wars lovers), definitely check today's post out.  Tada!  I'm sharing my easy instructions for folding an origami Yoda!

How to Fold Origami Yoda (The Super Easy Way)

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Easy Origami Pikachu Tutorial

We've gotten hooked onto Pokemon Go.  I kept holding off on the app, but once my husband showed my son.... he fell in love with the little critters, especially Pikachu.  Pikachu was always my favorite too, so it was neat to share that with him.  We recently made this super easy origami pikachu together.  (Oh yes! Another paper folding craft!)  It was such a fun kids craft that I'm sharing the step-by-step folding directions over here!  

How to Fold an Origami Pikachu

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(And yes.  These instructions are so easy that even an almost 5 year old can make it!)

Dip Dye Kids Art Project

If you're looking for the easiest, funnest, cheapest, and most colorful kids summer art project... you're at the right place.  We've been dying up a storm over here and turning plain old paper towels into lovely dip dye art!

How to Make Dip Dye Art With Kids

Sparkly Sand Castle Art

Hello everyone!   How has your summer been so far?  Visited the beach yet?  Well... today's craft is a beach-inspired one. Today we're sharing a fun sand castle summer craft.  All you need is some sand and some glue and tada!  You've got an easy breezy summer art project perfect for kids for all ages!

Let's Make Some Sparkly Sand Art

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Build Your Own Unique Wooden Car

Ever since my eldest son was young, he LOVED cars.  Is your child that way too?  Then you'll understand why we've done a ton of car crafts over here on the blog.  And boy are you in for a treat with today'd post.  Tada!  My husband and son designed and built their very own wooden car... for free!

  Let's Build A Wooden Car!

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Family Watercolor Hand print Art

I'm always a bit nervous about transitions in life.  And having a new baby has certainly been a humongous transition for our whole family.  Diapers, giggles, crying, baby snuggles... we're still trying to find our new groove as a family of four.  So I came up with this hand print art project to do with my eldest son.  Despite all the crazy chaos that this stage of life brings, I still wanted to celebrate our family.

Family Watercolor Hand Print Art  

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Tape Resist Dinosaur Bone Art (And our favorite 10+ Dinosaur Books!)

I love it when an art and science combine to create a beautiful and easy kids STEM project. When I was growing up science, math, and art were always treated as fairly different topics.  And I get why they taught us that way... it's easier and we get to dig down deep into each one.  But I wish that my kid self also experienced how all three things topics were linked.  Don't artist use math and science when making art?  Isn't there beauty in math and science? Certainly!  And so my inner nerd and artist gets very excited when my son and I do a project that touches on what seem to be different areas.

Ok... but I digress.  Recently my son and I visited our local natural history museum's dinosaur exhibit and marveled at the size and design of t-rex bones.  (Gosh.  Those are some ferocious creatures!  So glad they don't live today.  Eeek.)  So, inspired by that visit and this awesome human skeleton tape resist painting idea, we made our own very beautiful and scientific tape resist dinosaur bone skeleton paintings! 

Tape Resist Dinosaur Bone Paintings 

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100 Color Challenge

Ever wonder just how big 100 really is?  Lately my son and I have been talking about numbers.  While small numbers are easy to imagine... large numbers always seem quite vague.  100?  1,000?  1,000,000?  10,000,000?  We just don't have much experience dealing with numbers larger than 20 in the real world.  So I came up with this really easy combination math activity and art activity.  We challenged ourselves to make 100 colors together!

100 Color Challenge!

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30+ Awesomely Unique and Fun Paper Plate Crafts for Kids!

It's no secret that I LOVE paper plate crafts!   Wanna make my heart sing?  Hand me a bunch of blank paper plates.  Seriously.  No joke. (Ok- Crafter confessional here- I've even snuck interesting paper plates out of parties before to craft with... shhhh... )

If you follow me on Instagram you'll see that I'm this week's #kidscrafts101 judge! Yup!  Every week there's a fun challenge to craft with a different material.  This week's theme is... drum roll please... paper plates! I know all of you and your kids have such creative ideas, so I'd love to see your ideas on IG!  (Just use the #kidscrafts101 so I can see your great ideas!)

And in honor of this week's theme, I thought I'd also share my absolute favorite paper plate crafts!

30+ Super Fun and Unique Paper Plate Crafts for Kids!

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Weaving Cute Baby Turtles Using God's Eye Weaving Pattern

Looking for some fun and unique summer crafts to do with the kiddos?   Me too! School is almost over and I've got summer crafts on my mind!  Today I'm sharing this fun twist on a God's Eye weaving craft.  (Remember collecting sticks and making those in summer camp?)  But, instead of making the traditional 2 stick version, we recently made a fun 3 stick version.... that also happens to look like a tiny baby turtle!

(Aww, aren't they cute?  My preschooler was in looove with these.)

Weaving Cute Baby Turtles Using God's Eye Weaving Pattern

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Let's design a zoo! (And our 15+ favorite zoo books!)

Are you looking for an easy, open-ended prompt to encourage children's play and creativity?  How about a building challenge?  We've designed and built playdough and rock houses , cardboard bridges, boats from recycled materials, and super hero hideouts.  Today, we're designing and building a zoo!

Designing a Zoo with Kids!

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